Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A number of scientific methods have been developed to detect, measure, and/or affect one or more analytes in a biological or other environment. The one or more analytes could be any analytes that, when present in or absent from a person's body, or present at a particular concentration or range of concentrations, may be indicative of a medical condition or health state of the person. The one or more analytes could be substances whose distribution, action, or other properties, interactions, or activities throughout an animal's body is of scientific interest. The one or more analytes could be include pharmaceuticals or other substances introduced into the biological or other environment to effect some chemical or biological process. The one or more analytes could be present in living or nonliving human or animal tissue, and could be detected, measured, of affected in an in vivo, ex vivo, in vitro, or some other type of sample. The one or more analytes could include enzymes, reagents, hormones, proteins, drugs, nanoparticles, pharmaceuticals, cells or other molecules.
Detecting, measuring, and/or affecting one or more analytes in a biological or other environment can be accomplished through the use of a contrast agent targeted to and/or part of the one or more analytes. The contrast agent can facilitate detecting, measuring, and/or affecting the one or more analytes by having an optical, magnetic, electromagnetic, acoustical, and/or some other property that is different from (e.g., that contrasts with) the surrounding environment. The contrast between a property of the surrounding environment and the different property of the contrast agent can permit selective manipulation and/or detection of the contrast agent and/or the one or more analytes.